The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer program.
A time-division driven video display device is a video display device that outputs multiple video streams while sequentially switching video streams in a time-division manner. Examples of such time-division driven video display devices include a time-division stereoscopic video display system using a so-called shutter glasses (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 9-138384, 2000-36969, and 2003-45343) and multi-video display system using shutter glasses to allow multiple viewers to view different videos without dividing a screen.
A person extracts and combines a plurality of depth cues from a difference between two-dimensional retina videos obtained by right and left eyes (binocular parallax), thereby perceiving three-dimensional information and recognizing an object as a three-dimensional-like stereoscopic video. Rotational movements of eyeballs change a convergence angle, i.e., a crossing angle of lines of sight, and a person determines a distance from an object on the basis of the convergence angle, thus recognizing a space in a three-dimensional manner. Showing an image in a stereoscopic manner using this principle is called a stereoscopic vision. An image shown using each of images for the right and left eyes is called a stereoscopic image. A video shown by preparing a plurality of images for the right and left eyes and continuously changing the plurality of images for the right and left eyes is called a stereoscopic video. An apparatus capable of displaying the stereoscopic images and videos is called a stereoscopic video display device.
The time-division stereoscopic video display system is a video display system using a stereoscopic video display device alternately displaying a left eye video and a right eye video on the entire screen in an extremely short cycle and separately providing right and left eye videos in synchronization with the display cycle of the left eye video and the right eye video at the same time. For example, in the shutter glasses method, while the left eye video is displayed, a left eye unit of the shutter glasses passes light and the right eye unit shields light. On the other hand, while the right eye video is displayed, the right eye unit of the shutter glasses passes light and the left eye unit shields light.
A method for generating a stereoscopic image includes a method for preparing two cameras, installing one of them for the right eye and the other of them for the left eye in a horizontally displaced manner, and taking an image with a parallax. In a stereoscopic video made by computer graphics, a distance from a screen to a user and positions of right and left eyes are virtually defined, and an image rendered as if an object to be displayed is seen from the position of the right eye and an image rendered as if the object is seen from the position of the left eye are generated as two parallax images.